Previous reports, in our study of Taiwanese NSCLCs, have also indicated that p53 nuclear expression by immunostaining analysis detected more frequent stainable expression in squamous cell carcinoma than that in adenocarcinoma (Chang et al, 2003) In addition, p53 overexpression and the loss of Fhit expression has been significantly more common in tumours from smokers than those of nonsmokers (Chang et al, 2003). Here, TP53 is linked to squamous cell carcinoma.